News from the glass and refractory ceramics world

Published on April 2nd, 2014 | By: P. Carlo Ratto

Owens-Illinois, Inc. has completed a â‚¬21 million investment at its Leerdam plant in the Netherlands to enhance its capabilities and better support the brewing industry in the Benelux market. O-Iâ€™s investment includes a furnace rebuild, machine upgrades and new process and quality equipment to strengthen the plantâ€™s production and quality capabilities.

Saint-Gobain received the decisionÂ (pdf) of the General Court of the European Union to reduce the fine imposed by the European CommissionÂ in the case concerning the automotive glass industry in Europe for acts dating back to the late 1990s and early 2000sÂ from â‚¬880 million to â‚¬715 million.

After more than a decade of headlong growth, China is now preparing to focus on consolidating an economic system that favors more equitable distribution of wealth and fosters job development. Double digit growth in GDP is now a distant memory, and China officially closed 2013 at a more modest 7.7%. While apparently excellent by western standards, this was a difficult undertaking for the Chinese economy.

US Steel Corporation wants to make changes to its Fairfield plant and install a new, more efficient electric arc furnace. The company hopes to have the permits approved within the next year and begin building the electric arc furnace in 2015.

ANH Refractories, a nearly 140-year-old manufacturing firm that emerged last year from a 13-year-long Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, will soon move into a new headquarters on the Parkway West in Pittsburgh, Pa. ANH Refractories, which has built a global business with 17 production facilities on three continents, inked a deal to take a 42,000-square-foot office in a new building now under construction at the Pittsburgh International Business Park. The new location is within walking distance of ANHâ€™s current 62,000-square-foot office at Cherrington Corporate Center in Moon Township.